


Unbelievable

by blythechild



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Comment Fic, Gen, Secret Identity, Secrets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-20
Updated: 2012-11-20
Packaged: 2017-11-19 03:29:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/568591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blythechild/pseuds/blythechild
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Reid ropes Garcia into his secret life. </p><p>Created from a comment_fic prompt on livejournal: they can tell the team their secret, but they'd never be believed</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unbelievable

It was born out of a particularly brutal bout of ribbing from Morgan. Reid decided that _this_ was his line in the sand. He was thirty years old: enough was enough. The autodidact in him bent the force of his considerable intellect to the task of _showing them all_ in the most unexpected way possible. When he hit upon the perfect idea, he knew that he’d need a partner – someone who could illuminate the aspects that were more difficult for him. He didn’t have to break new ground here – he had resources…

When he burst into her office and explained the situation and his potential solution in one long, breathless verbal dump, she couldn’t have looked more dismayed than if he had pulled off his head and placed it on her desk next to her cup of fluffy pink pens. As he waited for her to recover, he considered daring her to join him – she loved a good dare – but in the end it was unnecessary as her eyes narrowed and her fingers danced around her jewellery.

“I’m _so_ in!”

The logistics had been easier than he imagined. He knew plenty of publishers but they were all academic. Luckily, his genius status opened a lot of doors and people tended to break rules for him. It wasn’t long before curious editors heard the industry whispers and came calling. What he couldn’t manage, Garcia could always achieve through less honest means.

He’d worked with partners for most of his adult life but he was concerned that he wouldn’t be able to collaborate freely given the material that they were creating. Part of the reason why he sought Garcia out was that needed someone who understood people and their drives – he was only good with the bloody bits. But the very idea of dissecting this with someone who understood much of what he didn’t made his stomach twist. Garcia approached it like the business that it was and after a few awkward draft reviews, he started to enjoy himself.

When the first run was published and the e-version went viral, the publisher called frantically demanding more. Two months later, it broke into the New York Times Bestseller list. Garcia delighted in finding florid and obsequious fan sites to show him. The fan fiction tended to sear one’s eyeballs and he and Garcia spent more than one Friday night reading the more outrageous examples to each other over pizza and beer. But the best part was overhearing J.J. and Prentiss discussing it in whispers around the coffee pot at work.

“I don’t usually read that sort of thing…”

“I know… me too. But one too many friends kept pushing it in my face…”

“I can’t believe that _a man_ wrote it.”

He smiled to himself and walked on by. It felt sweeter than he could have imagined.

His point being made, he considered ending the project and moving on to other challenges. But the joy he received from working with Garcia, and the delight in the secrecy of it kept him coming back. There was nothing wrong with it after all – a guilty pleasure is still pleasure. But the question of revelation niggled at him… 

“I don’t think that Isabella would allow Thurston to do that to her and then walk away.” He pointed to a highlighted section on his laptop while pouring himself another sherry.

Garcia gave him a dubious look. “I thought we agreed that the chick motivations would be left up to me.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know… but it doesn’t fit her pathology…”

“Pathology? Listen to yourself, Reidzilla – they aren’t case studies. _This_ is why you need me.”

“I need you because you are fabulous at this – but you have to admit, that I’ve surprised you at times. The Baron Zjeko fellacio scene for example…”

Garcia fanned herself and smiled. “Stupid hot. Really.”

“Thanks.” Reid grinned, blushing slightly. “All I’m saying is that it’s fiction, but it doesn’t have to be _unrealistic_. After all, it’s sorta our caché: believable pornography… Isabella would sooner gut him like a fish than let him do that to her, don’t you think?”

“Yeah, maybe…” Garcia considered the computer screen. “I’ll try something else, I guess.”

“Hey, Garcia…” 

“Yeah?”

“Do you…” Reid shifted awkwardly on her couch. “Do you ever want to _tell people_? You know… that you and I co-author bestselling romance novels on the side?”

She looked at him for a long moment and then re-arranged her glasses across her nose.

“Sure, all the time. Just imagining the reactions tickles me in unseemly ways.” She winked. “But when it comes right down to it, Reid – who the hell would believe it?”


End file.
